How to read a renovation estimate without being lied to
Homeowners are usually told to get three bids. Nobody tells them that three bids for the same house are frequently three different projects with three different amounts of risk transferred to the owner. Here is how to read them.
Look for the exclusions page first
A serious estimate has an exclusions list, and it is often the most informative page in the document. It tells you what the number does not include. If there is no exclusions list, the excluded items still exist, they are simply undisclosed.
Common exclusions that turn into real money: permit fees, structural engineering, asbestos or lead testing and abatement, utility connection charges, rock excavation, hazardous material disposal, and anything concealed behind a finished surface.
Count the allowances
An allowance is a placeholder for an item that genuinely cannot be selected yet. Two or three of them in a whole-home contract is normal. Fifteen of them is not an estimate, it is a wish, and the final number will be nothing like the one on the front page.
Each allowance should state what it covers. A tile allowance that covers material only is a very different promise from one that covers material, setting material and labour. If it does not say, ask, and get the answer in writing.
Check whether the structural work is priced
- Is engineering a line item, or is it missing?
- Is temporary shoring priced?
- Are new footings included, or does the estimate assume there is already something to bear on?
- Is the beam specified by size and material, or described only as a beam?
An estimate that says open up wall between kitchen and dining and nothing else has not been priced. It has been guessed. The difference between a doubled 2x10 and a W12x40 steel beam with two new footings is tens of thousands of dollars.
Ask what happens when something is found
Every renovation on a house over forty years old finds something. The question is not whether, it is what the contract says happens next. Look for language about concealed conditions, how they are documented, how they are priced, and how quickly you are told.
Compare the schedules, not just the prices
A schedule that shows permit review as two weeks on a job that needs structural review is not optimistic, it is wrong, and everything downstream of it is wrong too. A realistic schedule that includes the jurisdiction's queue is a sign that the estimator has done this before.
The cheapest bid is often the one that has thought about your project least. That is not a slogan, it is arithmetic: the less you have investigated, the less you find to price.
